Economy

The new Census Bureau report shows that the average cost of a private room in a nursing home in 2010 was $83,585 a year—and less than one fifth of older men and women have the finances to live in a home for more than three years. Medicaid covers long-term care for qualified, low-income seniors, but as the number of people in that group grows, the costs will hurt.

The budget is expected to add $2 billion to Illinois' backlog of unpaid bills, while allowing the governor to borrow up to $650 million from a variety of dedicated state funds to boost general fund cash flow. These kinds of one-time revenue measures have contributed to past downgrades of Illinois' credit ratings, which are at the lowest level among states.

The Health and Human Services inspector general said the administration was not able to resolve 2.6 million so-called “inconsistencies” out of a total of 2.9 million such problems in the federal insurance exchange from October through December 2013.

About 40 percent of the oil and gas wells in parts of the Marcellus shale region will probably be leaking methane into the groundwater or into the atmosphere, concludes a Cornell-led research team that examined the records of more than 41,000 such wells in Pennsylvania.

Federal student loan interest rates are set to increase Tuesday. Loans for undergraduates will rise 1 percent from last year. Loan rates for graduate students will rise just under 1 percent. The average student in Michigan graduates with just under $29,000 in loans. With the increase that comes to about $300 more per year.

With Independence Day only a few days away, today’s national average price of gas is $3.68 per gallon. This average is considerably more expensive than recent years for the holiday. The national average on July 4 in previous years was: $3.48 (2013); $3.34 (2012); $3.57 (2011); $2.74 (2010); $2.62 (2009); and $4.10 (2008).

Beef, pork, and poultry prices have spiked about 8 percent since this time last year - soaring to an all-time high. Experts say the dramatic cost spike is due in part to a drought in California, thin cattle herds, and a recent pork virus.

Still, the economic impact in urban areas doesn't compare to the hit being taken by agriculture, the biggest user of water in many semiarid states such as California. About 400,000 acres of farmland in the state will be left unplanted this year, causing an estimated $1.7 billion in agricultural losses, according to a report by the University of California, Davis.

Gold & Silver

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To limit climate change to 2° Celsius, low-carbon energy options will need additional investments of about US $800 billion a year globally from now to mid-century, according to a new study published in the journal Climate Change Economics. But much of that capital could come from shifting subsidies and investments away from fossil fuels and associated technologies. Worldwide, fossil subsidies currently amount to around $500 billion per year. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140702111003.htm